Readers suggest ways to manage ground squirrels

Friday

Jun 20, 2008 at 6:47 AMJun 20, 2008 at 6:51 AM

MICKI BROWN Staff Writer

I have received a number of e-mails regarding ground squirrels over the past two weeks - some with a couple of ideas to try out, some with similar problems to mine. I'll give some of the suggestions a try.

I am definitely not alone in my struggles to save my garden from these "cute" but pesky creatures. In desperation to clear my garden of these fuzzy pests, I purchased some "squirrel bait" from a local nursery about three or four weeks ago. The squirrels won't touch it! They have completely wiped out my spinach, lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, beets, radishes and most of my nasturtiums.

As promised, I am sharing some of the e-mails so that others may benefit as well.

Hi Micki, "Regarding your "managing ground squirrels" column in the June 6 Daily Press, I addressed the same issue in my comments to an amusing New York Times article this week titled 'Peter Rabbit Must Die.' You can paste the link below into your browser to read the article. My brief comments are copied below, (The Times article drew more than 200 comments from around the country.)

"My specific problem has mostly involved ground squirrels biting tomatoes - they spoil the fruit without eating most of it. I had some success wrapping the unripe tomatoes with aluminum foil, but that was a very tedious procedure. The bird netting I draped over rows of tomato plants with the edges reaching down to the ground and weighted with wood planks. I was surprised at how well it did the job."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/05/ garden/05animals.html

"Small g round squirrels that resemble chipmunks are our biggest nuisance. Although cute to watch, they can easily climb or squeeze through holes in most fencing, including wire mesh. I have learned that they avoid garden areas surrounded by black flexible netting designed to keep birds away from fruits. I'm sure the squirrels could quickly chew through the netting if they tried. Maybe the taste or texture of the synthetic net fibers puts them off. The "bird netting" is available at stores with large gardening sections."

- Dan D.

Greetings Micki, "I owned a couple lawn and garden stores in San Clemente and we sold a lot of blood meal to keep the rabbits and deer away. They smell the blood and are frightened off. I do know this is effective for rabbits. Blood meal is high in nitrogen and good source for trace minerals."

- Anonymous

Hi Micki, "My wife and I read your Mojave Gardener Managing ground squirrels (part two) in the Friday, June 6 edition of the Victorville Daily Press. My wife insisted that I write with our experiences regarding gardening and the cute ground squirrel population in our area. We live in the west Oak Hills area and have quite a few indigenous hungry critters eager to sample our garden goodies. We started off with a garden 40 feet by 25 feet, bordered by a six-foot chain link fence. In a trench one foot deep at the base of the chain link we buried one foot of a three-foot width of chicken wire. The buried chicken wire helps prevent tunneling and the two foot wrap above ground keep the smaller critters from just walking through the twoinch openings in the chain link. We also installed a four-foot fibrous weed block material and decorative rock border around the outer perimeter. This helps stop tunneling and prevents weed growth from windblown watering overspray. We immediately discovered when we first planted that the ground squirrels climb up and over the two- foot chicken wire. So finally we installed the ultimate defense- a battery-powered electrically charged wire just above the chicken wire. The squirrels only try once then give up. We occasionally see them peering in at the garden but it works reasonably well. Now if we could only slow down the birds that love to eat our tomatoes."

- Jeff and Ginny T.

Micki, "Your articles on the ground squirrels were informative and right on track.

"With a purchase of three acres, I was looking forward to a garden. All of my veggies were lost to rabbits and squirrels. No more garden.

"We planted fruit trees. We watched squirrels eat all the fruit. We had hundreds of squirrels. The trees would absolutely rain squirrels when they saw us. All fruit was lost to the squirrels.

"I tried CDs in the trees, fake owls, etc. I even got dog fur from a pet groomer service and placed it around the bottom of the trees.

"I finally found the bait and went through three canisters of bait in one season. The next season, there weren't so many of the ugly little rodents and it only took one canister that year. Now I keep the bait on hand each spring and even though it may be sad to poison the beady-eyed, pointy-eared, chirping critters, it doesn't bother me anymore.

"Our peaches were lost this year to the squirrels. Because the weather was so ugly, I didn't get out in time to pick before the furry creatures ate all the peaches. The loquat tree had about 100 loquats last week, but weren't quite ripe. I was planning to pick in a few days, but before that day happened, they were all eaten.

"I'm having some luck bagging low branches with plastic grocery bags.

"Thanks for your articles about squirrels. I'm not alone."

- Susan P.

Dear Micki, "Our ground squirrel now has a second home, the Southampton of squirrel-dom. When I come in the driveway, he/she scampers halfway across the driveway, from burrow to burrow, then stops to glower at me as if I were trespassing on his/ her private property. At the rate this is aging me, I'm not at all sure that 'squirrels were here before us'!"

- Stuart K.

Micki, "At least Stuart has only one ground squirrel! We have had hundreds this spring! Our only help has been to stop feeding the birds. It was entertaining to sit in the sun room and watch the squirrels climb up the pole to the bird feeder and watch the little wheels turning in the little squirrel brain as they (yes, they tagged teamed) figured out how to outwit the latest barrier Harry created. Each barrier proved no barrier to the squirrels. They always managed to figure out a way around each barrier and we would find not one, but two squirrels with heads inside the bird feeder stuffing themselves before we rapped on the window.

"Step one was to remove the bird feeder from its vantage viewing spot near the window in the flower bed. Step two was to dig out all the weird plants that had propagated from the bird seed and ruined a three year growth of Shasta daisies and a beautiful clump of iris. Step three was providential. An adorable ginger cat showed up and adopted us. She has since littered the back yard with an array of squirrel tails and assorted internal organs.

"Needless to say, the squirrel population has diminished considerably. Come to think of it, I can't recall when I've seen a whole live one."